676 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
I did not find any valid justification as to why a ruling prince, qua a ruling prince, should be disqualified from being a member of a legislature. Subsequently it was urged that these ruling princes had been given certain protection under ‘ the Criminal Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code, by virtue of which it was not possible for a person to file a criminal complaint against them or to file a civil suit without the previous sanction of the Government of India. On this ground it was said that if this protection extended to the period intervening between the nomination and the polling, a Prince may commit any offence or he may commit any corrupt practice or illegal practice and it would not be possible for any individual to bring him to book, because the permission of the Government of India was necessary. I felt that this was a legitimate complaint—that if a Prince wanted to stand for election he should not be permitted to claim the protection, that has been given to him by the provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code.
Therefore, what is proposed in this amendment is this that if a Prince stands as a candidate for an election, whether it is an election from a Parliamentary constituency or an election to the State Legislative Assembly, he shall automatically cease to obtain the benefits conferred upon him by the provisions contained in the Criminal Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code so that he may be prosecuted for an offence without the sanction of the Government of India. An election petition may be lodged against him without the consent of the Government of India and any other proceedings may be taken against him as though he was a common citizen having no special privileges. This, I think, is a via media between the old provision in the Select Committee’s Report that they should be qualified to stand for election and be Members of Parliament without abrogation of the privileges that were given to them under the Civil and Criminal Procedure Codes and the other position taken by other Members of the House that they should be straightway disqualified from standing for election.
I hope the House will accept this amendment, because it strikes a middle path.